


Coffee and School Work

by NightWing18



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Coffee Shop Owner Grillby, Coffee Shops, M/M, Professor Gaster
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:28:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28617306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightWing18/pseuds/NightWing18
Summary: It's... It's Grillster but Coffee Shop that's it it's soft.Credit to my good good friend Skele (hi!!) for her help- especially with Gaster characterization
Relationships: W. D. Gaster/Grillby
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

The quaint little shop sat just off central downtown, a quiet side street that saw enough business to keep the single monster employee busy without being overwhelmed by the rushes the main drag often saw. Things were slower here, and quieter, in the tiny cafe. Most of the customers were regulars and, after two or three visits, the barista remembered each order and could have it ready by the time a customer reached the counter, provided the lines weren’t too long.

Grillby had been running his little corner of paradise for a couple of years, and could finally say he was completely settled into the city and the business. He had built up a steady customer base that relied on and knew him, enough that his single shop was thriving and he was able to hold his own. Years of hard work and dedication paying off. He’d been able to hire another barista, give himself a break and keep up with the busy hours, and he had to admit- Fuku was the best worker he could have picked. Even if she did spend all of her free time teasing him. 

That day was busy, which was normal for them by that point. A steady stream of families, students and professors from the nearby university, humans, and monsters alike out enjoying the day and the shops downtown. Grillby stood at the register, taking orders and helping Fuku with drinks. 

“Hello, what can I get for you?” He asked, raising his eyes from the register to meet those of the skeleton monster across from him. 

“Can you fill a large cup with espresso shots?” 

“A large- can I what?”

“Fill a large cup with espresso shots,” the other repeated, offering a faint smile. Grillby blinked once more, looking over this skeleton- completely innocent looking in a white long-sleeved shirt and blue argyle vest, round-framed glasses perched on his face, and his faint smile. A bag over his shoulder full of books. Definitely not someone you’d think would order his death in caffeine that morning. 

Meeting his eyes once more, he let out a little breath. “I’m not sure how many shots will fit in a large cup- or how much it will cost.”

“Oh, I’m not worried about the cost!” He assured, and the elemental barista nodded once more. “.. Fuku,” he said, turning to face the green girl behind him. “Start filling a cup with espresso shots, keep track of how many so we can figure out a price.”

“Are you-” She cut herself off, eyeing the pair before shrugging once. “Alright. Whatever you say.” Turning away from them once more, she got to work.  
“If I could have your name, it will take a bit to make,” Grillby continued, popping open a pen to make a note, “I can call you up when it’s done and you can pay.”

“Oh, it’s Gaster,” he filled in. “Thank you very much.” Moving away from the front of the line, Grillby shook his head once before regaining his smile and asking for the next customer’s order. He got through a few customers, the line dwindling as people took the cups and disappeared outside once more, leaving a scant handful scattered around the room, before Fuku tapped on his shoulder. “It took 25 espresso shots.”

“... Twent-.... Alright. Gaster?” He called out into the room as he started tapping on the register; the skeleton rose from his place at one of the tables and approached the counter once more. After a request for some milk to top it off, the transaction was finished, and Grillby watched Gaster walk back to his table and settle amongst his papers once more. Took a long swig and settled into the work before him. 

Grillby shuddered a little- he couldn't imagine anyone pumping that much caffeine into their body. Sure, a couple of shots, that was normal. A large espresso had about the same amount of caffeine as a couple of cups of regular black coffee. But this.. this was extreme. At least he didn't have orangs- Grillby would have felt guilty if he put the man into heart failure supplying that much coffee. 

He and Fuku bustled around the small coffee shop for a few more hours, taking the occasional order, fiddling wit the radio to keep the same steady volume of soothing music wafting through the room. Cleaning tables as costumer's came and went- minus one, a skeleton who remained at his table working on the papers before him and only rose to order another cup of espresso shots. At least this time Grillby knew what he was doing. 

Gaster stayed until Grillby told him they were closing in 20 minutes, left with a smile, another thanks for the coffee, and his papers carefully put back in the bag he carried. Grillby watched him leave, vaguely surprised that he was still completely calm after so much coffee in just a few hours. Shaking his head, he flipped the open sign to closed and locked the door, finishing closing the store with Fuku before they bid each other a good night and went their separate ways. They'd do it all again tomorrow morning. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Thanks for reading! Please don't drink that much espresso in one sitting. I did research and 5 shots a day can cause heart problems. 2 shots is about the same amount of caffeine as an 8 oz cup of coffee- 25 shots is a lot don't do it.   
> Anyway, thanks again love you bye!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta Reading? Editing? No we finish a chapter at work at 4 am like champs haha. Anyway here more cute more gay  
> Hi Skele thanks for letting me pick your brain on Gaster stuff you're so good (◡‿◡✿)

Grillby’s and Gaster’s interactions continued much the same; first for weeks, then months. The skeleton would come in, order his drink, and settle at the table that was quickly becoming ‘his table.’ And he started to get curious- could it be helped? He always came at the same time and stayed until closing, with his pile of papers and books. So he started to ask questions. Little ones, here and there, when things were quiet and he had the time. 

He learned bits and pieces throughout the short conversations over the counter or as he set a new cup of coffee down at his table. Gaster had a job as a professor at the university nearby. He was still fairly new, having only been teaching for a couple of years at the time of their meeting, with focuses in magi-biology and science. He could rattle on about his classes and experiments forever if given the chance- and Grillby, as far from science-minded as one could get, found himself deeply enjoying the conversation. Gaster had a way of presenting that drew him in, a passion and fire that was, tragically, rare to find. 

And Gaster was able to find out little things about the barista that served him. Grillby had been running the coffee shop for a couple of years, he’d started working at shops like this as soon as he made it to town; 18 years old and on his own. He’d worked and saved and after several years had finally been able to open his own. And now, 26 years old, he was finally set and stable in his career. 

Grillby found himself getting… closer to the skeleton monster that sat in his cafe almost every day. He really liked being around him, liked the comfortable ease between them. A friend- the elemental had never had many. It brought a certain lightness to his day; it was always nice, amidst the sea of customers, to have someone that cared about how his day was going, about getting to know him. Even if it was just for a handful of minutes at a time. 

It happened so slowly he didn’t notice at first. 

From a pleasant surprise when Gaster arrived to waiting for him to walk in the door, quick conversations as he dropped off drinks became him stalling at his table for a few minutes longer, just to talk with him more. Smiles grew softer, laughs fonder, gaze lingering for milliseconds at a time longer than normal by the day. 

It was a quiet moment in the shop. Grillby was absentmindedly wiping down one of the counters, his gaze continuing to drift away from what he was doing to Gaster at his table, working once more. 

**_WHACK!_ **

He jumped, whirling around and rubbing at his arm- where Fuku had hit him with one of the dry dishcloths and was now smiling away like she’d done nothing wrong. "You're gonna burn holes through the guy with your stare alone. You're still on the clock, Mr. Romance."

Grillby glanced around, confused for a moment- how long had he been looking, lost in thought and far, far away from the near-empty coffee shop? It couldn’t have been longer than a few minutes; counter still damp in front of him from where he was cleaning. Turning back to Fuku, he rolled his eyes. “Shush, you.”

"Tell me I'm wrong, lover boy~~" She teased, laughing a little and skipping out of the way of the light whack to her arm. "You gonna ask him out? Have you even spoken to him beyond "Hi, what can I get you" and "That'll be 5.50 sir" ..?"

“Yes! I have, actually!”

“... Have a nice day  _ doesn’t _ count.”

Grillby huffed softly, folding his arms over his chest. “He stays late every day, I've.. asked him what he does and things.” They had had a few short conversations, over coffee cups and across tables. 

“Ohoo~ you're showing interest. Atta' boy. Pretty soon you'll be exchanging numbers and thennnnn-”

“And then you’re going to shut up my god I should fire you.” He was blushing faintly, the lightest shades of blue coloring the flames of his face. 

She grinned slowly, flashing finger guns. “I’m already all fired up.” Ignoring his groan, she continued on. “You'd never fire me anyway. I'm the only one in town who would put up with your bullshit.”

“I’m sure I could find someone that would fill in,” he grumbled, turning away from the green elemental to head into the back of the shop instead. Working on inventory was much easier than dealing with his budding feelings and Fuku’s constant teasing any day. 

Things continued much the same for another week or so; Grillby’s gaze wandered consistently to his most common regular, Fuku teased near constantly, and Gaster seemed none the wiser to the goings-on behind the counter. And then one evening, the pair lost track of time. Gaster stayed much later than intended, stayed until the wintery night fell outside and Grillby was preparing to lock the doors. They had gotten distracted discussing one of his latest classes, Grillby going through the motions of closing the cafe without really noticing, and Gaster far too distracted with his topic to pay much attention to the growing darkness. 

“Oh, is it that late?” He cut himself off to say, standing to quickly start packing his things in his bag once more. “I’m sorry, Grillby, I never meant to keep you.”

“Oh, ah… no. It’s okay. I like your company, I don’t mind if you end up staying late once in a while. It’s nice, especially when I send Fuku home early,” he hummed, standing next to the doorway and winding his scarf around his neck as he waited for the skeleton to dress in his coat once more and join him in leaving the building. 

Locking the door, he turned to leave- and found himself falling in step with Gaster down the snowy road. Oh.. he hadn’t known they lived in the same direction. Neither had Gaster, judging from the surprise on his face. Surprise that quickly gave way into a smile. “Well. I suppose we won’t be saying our goodbyes quite yet, after all.”

Thus, a new ritual was formed. Once or twice a week, Gaster stayed late, and the pair walked the path towards their homes. They split about halfway, Grillby continuing straight and Gaster going left, but it was still an extra 15 minutes or so they were able to spend together. Through cold and snow, the pair walked home together. As winter hurried in and the temperature continued to drop, the ritual held on. 

“..What’s the sound?” Gaster had been filling the walk with most of the conversation that day; Grillby hadn’t noticed the… clicking sound? A sort of… rattling. He hadn’t heard it when they’d been talking, but now that there was a break in the conversation he could- and he was kind of surprised he hadn’t noticed it before that point. Glancing around, he tried to place it- it sounded like... Was it coming from Gaster?

The skeleton in question looked almost embarrassed. “Oh, it’s… I’m just cold.” Shivering. Gaster was  _ shivering, _ of course, he was all bone that would make the sound Grillby was hearing. Oh… he felt bad. It wasn’t often that Grillby noticed the cold- he could get uncomfortable in it, in the snow, but it took much more than this for him to really feel cold in the same sense of the word. 

Without another thought, the elemental unwound the scarf from around his neck and stepped closer to the skeleton next to him, reaching out to drape it around his shoulders and flip one end around his neck. 

“Ah-- wait, don't you need this? I'm sure the snow melts around you, but it must be uncomfortable on contact, right?” Gaster seemed flustered at the action, his smile a little shy. 

“I’ll be fine,” he assured quickly, blushing faintly, blue climbing high in his flames. Ideally, Gaster would think it was due to the cold. “I have a hood, it’ll be okay.”

“Oh.. thank you..! I'll wash it carefully and return it to you tomorrow.” Gaster’s smile grew into a grin, and he better wrapped the scarf around himself, reveling in the warmth; both from the scarf itself and the residual heat from the man it had been wrapped around. 

“Keep it as long as you need. I promise it's okay.” Grillby offered his own smile in return, pulling his hood up around his head to shield against the snow. They parted ways at the usual fork- and Grillby felt warm, deep in his soul, warm and light as he finished the walk to his apartment and locked his door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nope I don't know when to cut chapters off No I refuse to learn lol.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a slow burn fic and they are dumb and gay (Hi Skele love you thanks for your help I'm calling attention to it in every chapter)  
> This is a very dialogue-heavy chapter so have fun with that cause it is not my strong suit (◡‿◡✿)

Fuku knew something was up. Grillby had been acting… weirder than normal, more distracted and flighty. At first, she had assumed it was just his crush that he  _ still  _ hadn’t acted on, but… In the end, it only took her a couple of hours to place what exactly it was that had changed. She hadn’t served Gaster at all; she’d heard him, heard Grillby’s laugh and a snippet of conversation, but she hadn’t actually  _ seen  _ the man. And now… now that things had quieted down, Fuku noticed immediately. She stood up straight and snapped her focus to her boss and friend- who was pointedly ignoring her. 

“Grillby. Is your favorite customer wearing your scarf or am I hallucinating?”

“Hm? Oh. Yes.” He still had yet to turn and face her, was instead cleaning a machine that was already spotless, anything to keep his hands busy and his attention away from his coworker. “Yes, he is I lent it to him last night.” 

“Mhm _ hmmmmmm _ ..................” She grinned slowly, sliding on up to close in on his space and nudge his side lightly. “He seems to really like it. See? He keeps playing with it. Must feel nice for a skeleton..” 

Grillby glanced over towards the skeleton, smiling faintly and ignoring the way his soul gave a hard knock against his chest as Gaster fiddled with the fringe along the end of the scarf. “...It is a nice scarf. And he gets cold very easily.” 

A faint snicker came from his side. “You are so cute. Ask him out.” She had said the same thing at least weakly for months, edging Grillby on and on to just finally  _ say something _ to the professor that graced their shop every day. It was painfully obvious that he wanted to, after all. To everyone. She was somewhat surprised Gaster hadn’t called him out yet, honestly. 

He shifted a little, adjusting his weight from one foot to the other. Silent, for a moment, nerves clawing at his throat. “... Tonight.”

“Oh! For real?!”

“... Yeah. Might as well- what's the worst that can happen, he says no? Heh…” Oh boy. He was really going to do this, wasn’t he? He was going to have to wait with this for the rest of the day; he couldn’t really do it while on the clock and serving other customers. So… okay. That’s okay, he had all day to build the courage he needed to actually cross the cafe and ask him out on a date. And hope that he didn’t say no.

Fuku squinted at him, taking him in. Her boss certainly wasn’t any good at hiding his nerves, that was for sure, but the green elemental had hope that this was going to go well. “How many times have you rehearsed this in your head?” She asked lightly.

“...I lost count.”

And she laughed, and shook her head, and got back to work

The day dragged on, years in the space of a handful of hours and Grillby found ways to keep himself busy and not dwell too much on what he had committed to doing later. It was going to happen. He was going to ask. So there was no need to obsess all day.

Finally, finally, the last customer of the night was out the door, and Grillby flipped the Open sign to Closed. Just him, Fuku, and… Gaster left, another day when they’d walk home with each other. Taking a deep breath and squaring his shoulder, the owner made his way over to the table. Gaster smiled his way. “Your gift has come in handy more times than I can count, you know. I can't feel the cold through it at all.”

“Oh, good! Good, I had hoped…” A shifting of weight, a shuffling of feet, clearing of his throat a little. “I.. have a question.”

“Well, I hopefully have a suitable answer then..” He was in the middle of putting his things away when Grillby finally got around to speaking again. He paused, laptop half in his bag to focus on him once more. “What's on your mind?”

Another pause, another shift as he took a breath. “... Would you, perhaps... want to, maybe, go out. With me. On a date. Sometime.” God, he was a mess. That was ridiculous. He was an adult, stumbling over his question like a high schooler as a blue blush crawled up his cheeks.

Gaster blinked at him, silent for a moment. Blinked again. His own purple blush flashed across his bones and he slid his laptop the rest of the way into his bag. “Where would you like to go? Going out for coffee seems a bit redundant at this point.”

Yes? That.. that was a yes! He brightened, laughing a little. When phrased like that, it was almost like they had been going on dates for months at this point.“Yeah.. so does a walk, too. Maybe... dinner?

“Dinner,” his brow arched a little. “Well, I'd be delighted. When's best for you?”

“Hmm... I could probably get off any day- what's your schedule like, Professor?~” There was a teasing lilt to his voice, now that his nerves could be banished for the time being. 

A smile grew, splitting slowly across Gaster’s face. “I've been hard at work forming my course components for the first semester a month from now, so I'm practically free as a bird until then. We'll work around your schedule, shall we?”

His words were met with a hum, a nod, and a single raised finger asking for a moment before he turned to face the counter once more. “Fuku, what day works best for you to close by yourself!”

“Any day!” The answer came from the back room, the girl hidden from sight. “Tomorrow if you need it.”

“.. Tomorrow, Gaster?”

“Tomorrow sounds fine, Grillby.”

“Tomorrow would be great!" He turned his attention back to the grinning skeleton before him. "... Tomorrow it is, then."

Grillby, of course, was missing one important factor. He and Gaster still had to walk home together, and following the events in the cafe, he was filled with a nervous sort of energy. At least Gaster had said yes- this would have been far worse if he had been rejected.

“So- Grillby. How long have you wanted to ask?” The question broke the silence they had fallen into, and Grillby looked over to see the skeleton grinning at him once more. “I thought I could spy you peering my way once or twice. But assumption is a killer.”

"Sorry. I can't tell you that- it's been far too long, now it’s embarrassing." His own returning smile was small and shy

“I think that speaks volumes on its own.”

“You could have asked at any time as well-” he shot back, sliding his hands in the pockets of his coat. “You  _ were _ very quick to answer, after all."

Gaster’s smile softened, lost that teasing edge but did not lose its heart. “Skeletons are a rare species and are generally off-putting for the majority given our appearance. A wandering eye is one thing; many have them, but to act on them is as much a strength to some as it is a risk to others. Besides, the worry of creating ripples of discomfort in an otherwise serene environment is an affliction we all battle with."

There was a pause, a long moment of silence before he nodded and let out a breath. “... that's fair, I suppose.”

“.. Still.. to that end, the thought did cross my mind a few times.”

“I figured- or I imagine you might have had to think about your answer for a little bit longer.” He was grinning again, the mood light and bright between them. Buzzing with an excited air of what could be between them. 

“Fortunately, I'm better at using my work as a distraction than you appear to be.” Gaster teased, nudging their shoulders together and laughing a little. 

Grillby flushed, laughing a little and pushing him away. “Oh, shush! It’s certainly easier to hide behind a laptop screen than it is behind the counter.”

They walked, laughing and teasing each other, lingering at the street corner where they were meant to split. The air was cold around them and yet they were very warm. Standing together under a street light, things were peaceful and wonderful and hopefully bright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slow burn means 3 chapters sorry I have no patience lol


End file.
